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<p>We are told no more in the title of this book (which we have, <a class="bibleref" title="Hab.1.1" href="/passage/?search=Hab.1.1">Hab. 1:1</a>) than that the penman was <i>a prophet</i>, a man divinely inspired and commissioned, which is enough (if that be so, we need not ask concerning his tribe or family, or the place of his birth), and that the book itself is <i>the burden which</i> he <i>saw</i>; he was as sure of the truth of it as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes already accomplished. Here, in these verses, the prophet sadly laments the iniquity of the times, as one sensibly touched with grief for the lamentable decay of religion and righteousness. It is a very melancholy complaint which he here makes to God, 1. That no man could call what he had his own; but, in defiance of the most sacred laws of property and equity, he that had power on his side had what he had a mind to, though he had no right on his side: The land was <i>full of violence</i>, as the old world was, <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.6.11" href="/passage/?search=Gen.6.11">Gen. 6:11</a>. The prophet <i>cries out of violence</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Hab.1.2" href="/passage/?search=Hab.1.2">Hab. 1:2</a>), <i>iniquity</i> and <i>grievance, spoil</i> and <i>violence</i>. In families and among relations, in neighbour-hoods and among friends, in commerce and in courts of law, every thing was carried with a high hand, and no man made any scruple of doing wrong to his neighbour, so that he could but make a good hand of it for himself. It does not appear that the prophet himself had any great wrong done him (in losing times it fared best with those that had nothing to lose), but it grieved him to see other people wronged, and he could not but mingle his tears with those of the oppressed. Note, Doing wrong to harmless people, as it is an iniquity in itself, so it is a great grievance to all that are concerned for God’s Jerusalem, who <i>sigh and cry for abominations</i> of this kind. He complains (<a class="bibleref" title="Hab.1.4" href="/passage/?search=Hab.1.4">Hab. 1:4</a>) that <i>the wicked doth compass about the righteous</i>. One honest man, one honest cause, shall have enemies besetting it on every side; many wicked men, in confederacy against it, run it down; nay, one wicked man (for it is singular) with so many various arts of mischief sets upon a righteous man, that he perfectly besets him. 2. That the kingdom was broken into parties and factions that were continually biting and devouring one another. This is a lamentation to all the sons of peace: <i>There are that raise up strife and contention</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Hab.1.3" href="/passage/?search=Hab.1.3">Hab. 1:3</a>), that foment divisions, widen breaches, incense men against one another, and sow discord among brethren, by doing the work of him that is the accuser of the brethren. Strifes and contentions that have been laid asleep, and begun to be forgotten, they awake, and industriously raise up again, and blow up the sparks that were hidden under the embers. And, if <i>blessed are the peace-makers</i>, cursed are such peace-breakers, that make parties, and so make mischief that spreads further, and lasts longer, than they can imagine. It is sad to see bad men warming their hands at those flames which are devouring all that is good in a nation, and stirring up the fire too. 3. That the torrent of violence and strife ran so strongly as to bid defiance to the restraints and regulations of laws and the administration of justice, <a class="bibleref" title="Hab.1.4" href="/passage/?search=Hab.1.4">Hab. 1:4</a>. Because God did not appear against them, nobody else would; <i>therefore the law is slacked</i>, is silent; it breathes not; <i>its pulse beats not</i> (so, it is said, the word signifies); it intermits, <i>and judgment does not go forth</i> as it should; no cognizance is taken of those crimes, no justice done upon the criminals; nay, <i>wrong judgment proceeds</i>; if appeals be made to the courts of equity, the righteous shall be condemned and the wicked justi
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